10.30.2014

'Road to Oklahoma' - the rest of the story

Tom and I have just returned from visiting my Oklahoma family.  We were lucky enough to be able to walk my great-grandparents' land that is no longer in the family, for me to snap a shot of the barn they built, with a little of the pond they dug in the background.  It was a beautiful, peaceful setting.  This trip was all about family......
..... and with great anticipation my cousin Clifford opened his gift from me.....
.... to find the 'Road to Oklahoma' quilt made specially for him.  Clifford has a kind and sensitive spirit and there were a few tears shed by all.
The 'official' quilt picture.
Gotta' have a photo session together!
He really loves deer, and when he saw the back woodland print filled with deer, I think he liked it almost better than the front!!!!!
He is a special cousin..... we had a great trip..... I am blessed.
Tom & I  =  Cowboy + Cowgirl
(I am wearing one of my Kirsten Kimono tees)
 If you want to read this quilt's entire story, start at the beginning by clicking here.




BE SURE TO READ ALL THE POSTS ABOUT THIS QUILT:
*'Road to Oklahoma' - the beginning
*Assembly Line progress
*The top is done..... or is it?!
*Let the quilting begin!
*'just keep quilting.... just keep quilting....'
*Complete!
*The rest of the story

10.13.2014

Clifford's 'Road to Oklahoma' quilt is complete!

UPDATE 8.18.2015
My 'Road to Oklahoma' Quilt is one of my entries in Lily Pad Quilting's 'Pets on Quilts Show 2015'
It is entered in the category 'Animal-themed Quilts' because the woodland deer scene fabric on the back of this quilt, was deliberately chosen because of the recipient's (my sweet cousin, Clifford's) love of deer.  When he saw the quilt, he thought the deer scene was the front of the quilt..... and was probably more excited about that than of the many pieced blocks on the front!  If I'd thought he'd think the 'back' was the 'front'.... that'd surely have saved me a lot of time and effort!!  :) 
For those stopping by from the Pets on Quilts Show 2015..... My family roots run deep in Oklahoma history as my ancestors were part of the Oklahoma Land Rush. I made this quilt for my cousin, Clifford, who still calls Oklahoma home, so it needed to be suitable not only for a grown man, but also have symbolic meaning.  That's why I chose the 'Road to Oklahoma' quilt block.  I live in South Carolina, so my husband even planned a special trip out to Oklahoma as part of gifting the quilt to Clifford.   All the links telling the story of this quilt are located at the bottom of this post. 
Thank you for stopping by!  Lisa

After a marathon weekend of quilting and binding.... my cousin Clifford's 'Road to Oklahoma' quilt is done!  It was immediately washed and dried last night to see the quilted goodness.  I could not wait.  One of my favorite parts, is to see how a quilt softens and crinkles after its first launder.  My husband did a fine job of holding the quilt for its final photographs this rainy afternoon.
The front:
The back could be used as a 'front' too.
A closeup of the woodland print fabric..... I like it.  He likes deer so this should be perfect.
 Always gotta have a photo of the binding, prepped and ready to put on.  Again, I used Shiny, Happy World's "How to Bind a Quilt"s video.... again, with the exception that I sewed it to the back first, then carefully pinned and machine-stitched to the front.  Love, love, love the way she was you begin and end the binding..... so easy.  Binding is 2 1/4" wide, folded in half, zig-zagged stitched on raw edges....
Thought long and hard about the quilt label and this is what I came up with.  If you look carefully at the back photo up above, you can see this tucked down into the lower left-hand corner.
I was v-e-r-y careful to line it up with my quilted squares and stitched on the top seam-lines so you cannot even see the machine-stitching from the front.  It lines up with the top two, left squares, photo below.   Here you can also see a little of the wavy, running stitch I did in the border.
Once the quilt was washed and dried, the little wonkiness in a couple of places, seemed to disappear.  Warm & Natural 100% cotton batting was used in this quilt, and all my other quilts too, and from what I've been reading, that type of batting helps fabric 'cling' and stay in place a little better than other types of batting..... and THAT may be why I've been able to quilt successfully without using a walking foot.  This finished quilt measures 50" x 66".  (It measured 52 1/2" x 68 1/2"prior to washing.)  All pieced and quilted by me using a Bernina 1230 and (basic) Kenmore 385.
If you remember from my very first post, this quilt, made from the historical quilt block aptly named 'Road to Oklahoma', is to be a surprise for my cousin Clifford, who always set aside time for me, and made me feel so special when I'd visit Oklahoma during all my growing up years.  I wanted to show my gratefulness to him in some sort of tangible way.  This quilt was a labor of love and I enjoyed every, single, minute of the many, many hours of time invested in this project.  Only my third ever quilt.... my first quilt this size.  I learned a lot and am satisfied with the end product.

It was nice to travel down memory lane and think of all the good times with my cousin as I worked on his quilt and can hardly wait to surprise him with it soon!  May I again thank Karen for sharing her beautiful inspiration quilt and Gourmet Quilter for her video on piecing this block using 2 1/2" squares...

...and 'Thank you' readers, for traveling on this road with me!!

UPDATE:  Official quilt photo with my sweet cousin, Clifford.  Seriously, when he saw the deer on the back, he thought that was the front!  :)  Be sure to check out all the links below that tell the complete story about this quilt.




BE SURE TO READ ALL THE POSTS ABOUT THIS QUILT:
*'Road to Oklahoma' - the beginning
*Assembly Line progress
*The top is done..... or is it?!
*Let the quilting begin!
*'just keep quilting.... just keep quilting....'
*Complete!
*The rest of the story

10.09.2014

Cake & Photography = a good distraction!

Who can resist a slice of birthday cake with their morning coffee?  Not me!
Melissa's cake turned out so pretty and so good I wanted to share with you.  It was fun to pull out my icing piping tools that haven't been used since the girls were little.  Kept it simple with stars and swirls.  She liked the colors.  It was a surprise.  That's the way she wanted it.  She's such a sweet, happy, good-natured young woman, these colors seem to represent 'her'.  Pastel green with soft yellows and writing in white.  Got a new iPhone and photo below taken with that.  I'm on such a learning curve in so many different areas of my life lately, it seems.  Had my new phone less than 4 hours and had already called the sales rep 3 times with questions!  *sigh* 
Back to the cake.... kept it simple by using Betty Crocker SuperMoist White store-bought cake mix.  See there on the box front, below, "there's pudding in the mix".... that must be the secret ingredient to a melt-in-your-mouth, oh-so-delicious flavor.  Follow the instructions on the back to add water, oil and egg whites..... bake as directed.  Then I make my own buttercream frosting following the Wilton's Buttercream Icing recipe of 1/2 cup unsalted softened butter (not margarine), 1/2 cup shortening (only use Crisco), 4 cups sifted powder sugar (I always re-sift), 1 teaspoon vanilla (I use real, not artificial and not the clear one) and @2 Tablespoons of milk.   A quick 'n easy homemade cake that tastes like a million bucks!
Since it looks like I am procrastinating working on the quilt, lingering over a late 'breakfast' (ha!), I practiced a little photography while I was at it.  The photo below was snapped with my Canon Rebel set on 'auto'....
...compared to the first one where I changed the aperture and ISO settings, shown again in the photo below for comparison.  I like this one better.  Finally starting to feel like I am getting to 'know' my camera a little better.
Doesn't everyone have a broken weedeater part sitting on top of their agenda book?!   I literally wore out the bottom of my weedeater weedeating so much.  Have to order a new part and this is my 'reminder'.  Resourcefulness of aging.  :)
Better get back on the Road to Oklahoma.  I've got 23 more lines of quilting to do - but hey!, who's counting?!  Then there's the wavy lines in the border and of course the binding.....
.... "just keep quilting.... just keep quilting..."!

10.08.2014

'Just Keep Quilting' on the Road to Oklahoma

The imagery from 'Finding Nemo's' Dory was my mantra yesterday as 'just keep quilting..... just keep quilting.....'!
This quilt has been quilted without a walking foot and so far so good.  There is maybe only one or two wonky places.  I'll show those to you in a later post, but today wanted to share a little of the basting technique I worked out to minimize the pucker, gathers and/or wonkiness.  The trick, to me, has been to pin and re-pin..... and pin and re-pin..... and my fingers are torn up to prove it!   But it seems to be working.  In the photo below, you can see how I've set it up this morning for a couple of long vertical seams.  The pins are pinned @4" apart in the middle of the squares.  I am stitching 1/4" from the ditch.  You can see a few pins facing horizontally, left over from yesterday, when I was stitching the shorter sides.  I go back and forth from doing a few on the long sides, to a few on the short sides, also switching from side-to-side/top-to-bottom so the quilt is filling in all over and not lop-sided.  I also grip it from underneath, with both hands holding everything taut as it feeds through the machine..... stopping when needed to 'ease' any extra fabric out from under the presser foot using my fingers.
Photo below, is from yesterday and you can see more pins..... and a little of the minor wonkiness.
This quilt has already used up a brand new spool of thread and is re-loaded with the same, photo below.  I've NEVER used an entire spool of thread on one project before, but then again, I've never quilted a quilt like this before either.  Using my daughter's basic Kenmore, and sparing more wear and tear on my (very expensive!) Bernina has also been a good idea.  The Kenmore has been a workhorse plus I was able to use inexpensive thread, of which I'd never use on my Bernina.   The thread was also a part of my decision to use this machine, because I live in a rural area with access only to the more inexpensive threads and had not purchased enough of the brands I usually use in my Bernina.  After running out of one large spool of thread already, clearly this was a good idea!  This thread was left over from my 4-H sewing club c. 2003? and has worked well in this quilt.
I am also happy my little friend is feeling better and looking more like her bright-eyed and bushy-tailed self again.  She was sick the other day, and the sun did not seem to shine quite so brightly.
Today's my younger daughter's birthday so there's a cake to bake and birthday dinner to cook....
 .....the binding for this quilt needs to be planned and prepped.... AND we're leaving the 17th... AND there's one-hundred-million-other things I need to be thinking about..... AND.....  'just keep quilting.... just keep quilting.... just keep quilting'!



BE SURE TO READ ALL THE POSTS ABOUT THIS QUILT:
*'Road to Oklahoma' - the beginning
*Assembly Line progress
*The top is done..... or is it?!
*Let the quilting begin!
*'just keep quilting.... just keep quilting....'
*Complete!
*The rest of the story

10.03.2014

Running on the Road to Oklahoma

Hellooooo....
I am still here..... 
...totally consumed by the Road to Oklahoma quilt.....
....ran out of basting safety pins.... 2 packs of 150 each.... I need more...
the front seems to go on foreverrrrrrrr!
....because this quilt has 'grown' to be 54 1/2" x 68 1/2"..... fits the top of a full-size mattress.... which means I had to add a border around the back, photo below.  Can I mention how much I HATE adding a border to the back because it means you have to center the front to the back when you are sandwiching the whole thing together, and it is hard to near impossible (for me) to do that.  After an afternoon of sandwiching, pinning..... and more pinning.... the quilt is ready to be quilted.  My knees hurt. 
Back of quilt
My poor Bernina has been making all sorts of moaning and groaning noises from within the machine itself.  I've cleaned her, oiled her and loved on her but it's clear she needs a tune-up.  She is what makes garment sewing doable to me, so to save more wear and tear on her to get this quilt done, I drug out my daughter's Kenmore machine I bought for her years and years go when I thought she might 'catch' the sewing bug.  She didn't, so the machine is almost like brand new even though it's @11 years old.   I spent a couple of hours on it yesterday quilting the sample of my sample to get the stitch adjusted right.  Can you believe it has a plastic bobbin?!!!  Sooooooo different than my Bernina, but pleasant to use all the same.  I was brave and adjusted the little screw in the bobbin casing..... a big 'no-no' for the Bernina.  It worked and I got a good stitch.
Does anyone else practice on a sample of their sample?
Then it was time to think about the quilting pattern for this quilt, so I enjoyed playing with the sample block for a little while.  There is no way I could even begin to comprehend a free-motion stitch for this size quilt, so knew straight lines.... not diagonal straight lines.... but perpendicular straight lines were my ability.  This is what I came up with.
front
 I like the way it makes grid lines on the back.  I also really like this deer and woodland animal print.
back
Guess what I'm doing today.....
Let the quilting begin!



BE SURE TO READ ALL THE POSTS ABOUT THIS QUILT:
*'Road to Oklahoma' - the beginning
*Assembly Line progress
*The top is done..... or is it?!
*Let the quilting begin!
*'just keep quilting.... just keep quilting....'
*Complete!
*The rest of the story